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Jack Smith's Trump prosecutions will survive SCOTUS, but barely, experts say 2024-07-01 21:16:39+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview It's been a pretty bad day for Special Counsel Jack Smith. Both of his prosecutions of Donald Trump — the Mar-a-Lago documents case in Florida, and the insurrection case out of Washington, DC — will be delayed and diminished by Monday's United States Supreme Court's immunity decision, legal experts predict. The SCOTUS decision found that former presidents are presumptively immune from prosecution for acts they took while in office. It leaves it to lower courts to decide whether Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. That review of the insurrection case — by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and, likely, the Supreme Court once again — will take many months. Advertisement Meanwhile, Trump can be expected to use his new immunity superpowers to also challenge the documents case, including by reviving his claim that he somehow "declassified" the papers back in DC, in what was an "official" act. "With the January 6th case, the one that was at issue here, this makes it absolutely clear there's no way this is going to trial before the election," said Cliff Sloan, a Georgetown University law professor and constitutional law expert. "For the Florida case, the decision has no direct impact," noted Michel Paradis, an attorney who teaches national security and constitutional law at Columbia Law School. "But it is likely to disrupt and complicate the prosecution, in so far as there will be a new round of arguments on how the Supreme Court decision affects the transportation of documents, etc.," he said. Advertisement Sloan said that it's possible that Trump's attorneys make new arguments in the classified documents case based on the SCOTUS ruling, but explained, "It'll be more difficult because the core of that case has to do with actions he took when he was no longer president with regard to classified documents." Still, Trump can now argue that before he left office, he somehow "declassified" the documents, an official act that now cannot be challenged. Prosecutors say Trump broke federal law when he took documents with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida, estate and private club. Related stories The Florida litigation will be all the more complicated, Paradis added, "because the Supreme Court also held that you can't inquire into a president's 'motives' for taking any official act. And so precisely how that will work is up in the air at the moment." Advertisement According to Monday's decision, "In dividing official from unofficial conduct, courts may not inquire into the president's motives." The court continued, "Such a 'highly intrusive inquiry would risk exposing even the most obvious instances of official conduct to judicial examination on the mere allegation of improper purpose." Circling back to the January 6 case, one of that indictment's allegations is almost certain to now be challenged as an official act for which he is immune from prosecution, said Paradis. Trump is accused of trying to pressure his acting attorney general and the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Those discussions "are readily categorized" as official acts, Monday's decision states. Advertisement This is true even if Smith's claims are correct, and Trump's efforts were improper, the decision said. "Because the President cannot be prosecuted for conduct within his exclusive constitutional authority, Trump is absolutely immune from prosecution for the alleged conduct involving his discussions with Justice Department officials, the decision said. "Other allegations — such as those involving Trump's interactions with the vice president, state officials, and certain private parties, and his comments to the general public — present more difficult questions" that will now be argued over, the decision also states. "The biggest difficulty will be proving that something is not an official act," noted Paradis. Advertisement "The way the Supreme Court set up the new rule is that most everything the president does is 'presumptively immune,'" he said. "It then falls to the prosecution to show that the 'presumptively' official act was in fact 'unofficial.' However — and this is where Justice Barrett broke with the majority — prosecutors can't inquire into the president's motives and are also largely prohibited from inquiring into the president's communications," he added. "So you have to show what the president intended while being forbidden from proving what was in his mind," Paradis said. By that new measure, any communication Trump has with another federal official is, for all practical purposes, immune from prosecution, he said. Advertisement In its decision, Sloan said, the Supreme Court was "unwilling to say that even a single allegation in the indictment" against Trump over his over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election "was an example of an unofficial act." "It was willing to say some things were clearly official acts, but it was unwilling to give a single example of something that was unofficial," said Sloan, adding, "Courts would have to sort out what's official and what's unofficial, and if it's official, what kind of official action is it?" "In addition to everything else, it's a kind of complicated structure, is very unpredictable, and it just puts it in the hands of courts to make these judgments," Sloan said.
'NEETS' and 'new unemployables' — why some young adults aren’t working 2024-07-01 20:46:00+00:00 - Klaus Vedfelt | Digitalvision | Getty Images Although the unemployment rate has spent 30 months at or below below 4% — a near record — not everyone who wants a job has one. And not everyone even wants a job at all. Some, referred to as "NEETs," which stands for "not in employment, education, or training," are opting out of the labor force largely because they are discouraged by their economic standing. Others, alternatively, are well-qualified but often younger candidates who are struggling to find positions, comprising a contingent of "new unemployables," according to a recent report by Korn Ferry. Among 16- to 24-year-olds, the unemployment rate rose to 9% in May, which is "typical," according to Alí Bustamante, a labor economist and director of the Worker Power and Economic Security program at the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank based in New York City. Although the youth unemployment rate fell below 7% in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, such lows were "emblematic of how hot the labor market was at that point," Bustamante said. "9% is basically what we should be expecting during relatively good economic times for younger workers," he added. 'NEETS' feel 'left out and left behind' Still, some young adults in the U.S. are neither working nor learning new skills. In 2023, about 11.2% of young adults ages 15 to 24 in the U.S. were considered as NEETs, according to the International Labour Organization. In other words, roughly one in 10 young people are "being left out and left behind in many ways," Bustamante said. Even though "that's typically the norm," he said, "we should be expecting these rates to be lower." More from Personal Finance: Here's where U.S. rents are rising — and falling — the fastest Trump, Biden's first presidential debate: What to expect on taxes The 'funflation' effect: Why consumers are spending this summer Young men, especially, are increasingly disengaged, according to Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter. "The NEET trend is mostly a male phenomenon," she said. Pollak explained that's in part due to declining opportunities in traditionally male occupations, such as construction and manufacturing, while "women's enrollment in schooling, education outcomes, and employment outcomes have mostly trended upwards." 'Talent hoarding' has led to 'new unemployables' According to Korn Ferry's report, a "perfect storm" has also created a glut of "new unemployables," or highly trained workers who struggle to find job opportunities. "Employers are holding on to the talent they have and increasingly focusing on talent mobility," said David Ellis, senior vice president for global talent acquisition transformation at Korn Ferry. This "talent hoarding" has led to fewer available job openings even for well-qualified candidates, he said. watch now At the same time, firms are scaling back on new hires, limiting the opportunities at the entry level, as well. While the teen employment rate is the highest it has been in over a decade, early 20-somethings are struggling to find jobs, Pollak said. "It's the 20- to 24-year-olds that saw a massive drop off in the labor force participation during the pandemic, and who have lagged behind ever since." Overall, hiring projections for the class of 2024 fell 5.8% from last year, according to a report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, or NACE. As more candidates compete for fewer positions, stretches of unemployment are also lengthening. Now, the number of people unemployed for longer than six months is up 21%, Korn Ferry found. 'Unemployable' to employable
Houthi bomb boats, including some not seen before, are threatening Red Sea ships while the US Navy's aircraft carriers are away 2024-07-01 20:44:10+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview The US Navy is in the middle of changing up its forces in the Middle East. An aircraft carrier that spent months in the counter-Houthi fight heads home, leaving a gap as another one makes its way toward the region to take over. It has been over a week since the US last had an aircraft carrier on station in the Red Sea, meaning the Pentagon can't depend on the routine combat air patrols and immense firepower having a carrier in the region has provided over the past seven months. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. The Houthis have been stepping up drone boat operations, employing small watercraft that can be packed with explosives and detonate on impact. These weapons can be used to strike merchant vessels and cause catastrophic damage, which has already been the case in at least one instance in recent weeks. Drone boats are not a new capability for the Houthis. They have employed them in years past and throughout their ongoing campaign of attacks on merchant vessels and commercial shipping lanes. Advertisement During the first few months of the year, US airstrikes in Yemen destroyed the drone boats nearly every time the Houthis tried to send them into the water. But in June, the Iran-backed rebels managed to launch well over a dozen crafts — far more than they had in any previous month. Last month, one of the Houthi drone boats struck a commercial vessel, the MV Tutor, for the first time since the campaign began in November. View of an explosion the MV Tutor, which the Houthis struck in the Red Sea on June 12, in this screen grab obtained from a video. Houthi Media Center/Handout via REUTERS In the June 12 attack, the Houthis used a small, slow-moving boat staffed with two dummies, appearing to disguise the crude-looking weapon as a common fishing craft. Hours after the initial strike, the rebels hit the Tutor with a missile, causing it to later sink. Related stories More than a week after the Tutor attack, on June 22, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, which spent more than seven months battling the Houthis, finally left the region to head home, bringing with it the carrier Ike and dozens of fighter aircraft. The Ike's eventual replacement — the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group — won't arrive for some time. And in the meantime, the Houthis appear to be taking advantage of the decreased US Navy air patrols and employing more drone boats. Advertisement An F/A-18E Super Hornet launches from the flight deck aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea on April 12. US Navy photo United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, an element of the British Royal Navy, has reported multiple incidents over the past few days that appear consistent with such attacks. On June 27, for instance, UKMTO cited one threat as a "waterborne improvised explosive device," and on June 30, it said a merchant vessel was approached by "a mixture of fast boats and smaller kayak-type boats," adding that "some were observed as uncrewed." On June 30, the Houthi rebels revealed what they said is a highly advanced drone boat that can travel at speeds of 45 nautical mph and deliver an explosive payload of up to 3,300 pounds. The group claimed to have used the drone boat in a June 23 attack on the MV Transworld Navigator and published footage purporting to show the unmanned craft strike the much larger merchant vessel. Business Insider was unable to immediately verify the Houthi claim. US Central Command said at the time that the Transworld Navigator was hit by a "suspected uncrewed aerial system" and did not mention a drone boat. Advertisement Footage purporting to show a Houthi drone boat. The rebels have an arsenal of unmanned crafts with different variants. Houthi Media Center/Screengrab via X In the June 30 video, the Houthis also showed the drone boat going through various maneuvers and training exercises. At one point, rebels can be seen manually operating the craft before they dive off the side into the water and allow it to be remotely piloted. The newly revealed drone boat is far more sophisticated-looking than the one that struck the Tutor and appears notably larger than unmanned crafts that the rebels publicized and tested earlier in June, underscoring the different capabilities that the Houthis have in their arsenal. Experts have said that the uptick in drone boat attacks and the Houthis' newfound success in striking commercial vessels with such weapons indicates that they're learning from their many months of attacks and are able to adjust their operations accordingly.
Police say a man shot a Walmart drone. Armed Americans could pose a headache for air deliveries. 2024-07-01 20:43:12+00:00 - A Florida man admitted to shooting a Walmart drone last week, law enforcement officials said. For the past decade, gun owners have been shooting at UAVs — in violation of Federal regulations. Now, as more retailers use drones, armed Americans may add further complication to delivery by air. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Advertisement Retailers have had to solve a long list of technological, regulatory, and commercial challenges in order to offer deliveries by drone. But one complication remains especially difficult to predict: US gun owners. In the latest episode, the Lake County Sheriff said last week that Dennis Winn admitted to shooting a Walmart drone with a 9mm pistol as it flew near his home in Florida. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in .
Citadel’s Ken Griffin says he's not convinced that AI will replace human jobs in the near future 2024-07-01 20:39:00+00:00 - Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, said he remains skeptical that artificial intelligence could soon make human jobs obsolete as he sees flaws in machine learning models applied in certain scenarios. "We are at what is widely viewed as a real inflection point in the evolution of technology, with the rise of large language models. Some are convinced that within three years almost everything we do as humans will be done in one form or another by LLMs and other AI tools," Griffin said Friday during an event for Citadel's new class of interns in New York. "For a number of reasons, I am not convinced that these models will achieve that type of breakthrough in the near future." The rapid rise of AI has had the world pondering its far-reaching impact on society, including technology-induced job cuts. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is among many who have repeatedly warned of the threats that AI poses to humanity. He has called AI "more dangerous" than nuclear weapons, saying there will come a point where "no job is needed." Griffin, whose hedge fund and electronic market maker have been at the forefront of automation, said machine-learning tools do have their limits when it comes to adapting to changes. "Machine learning models do not do well in a world where regimes shift. Self-driving cars don't work very well in the North due to snow. When the terrain changes, they have no idea what to do," Griffin said. "Machine learning models do much better when there's consistency." Still, the billionaire investor thinks the power of advanced technology can't be dismissed in the long term, and he even sees cancer being eradicated one day because of it. "The rise of computing power is allowing us to solve all kinds of problems that were just simply not solvable five, 10, 15 years ago," Griffin said. "This is going to radically transform healthcare. We will end cancer as you know it in your lifetime." Citadel has long placed a great emphasis on hiring, not hesitant about putting responsibility into the hands of young employees and even interns, the CEO said. The firm's internship program has become one of the most competitive in the country. More than 85,000 students applied for about 300 positions this year, reflecting an acceptance rate of less than 0.5%, which is lower than that of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The people we hire today are going to be the leaders of Citadel not in 30 or 40 years, but in just a few years," Griffin said.
Tensions rise over Biden's catastrophic debate performance 2024-07-01 20:31:33+00:00 - Democrats are scrambling to control the damage after Biden's poor debate performance. The president says he will stay in the race despite calls to step aside. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in .
What to know about the plea deal offered Boeing in connection with 2 plane crashes 2024-07-01 20:29:22+00:00 - Federal prosecutors and victims’ families are waiting for Boeing to decide whether to accept a plea deal that would settle a criminal fraud charge accusing the aerospace giant of misleading regulators who approved the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed. Relatives of some of the 346 people who died in the October 2018 and March 2019 crashes are furious about the plea offer, which Justice Department prosecutors spelled out in an online meeting with the families and their lawyers on Sunday. The families want to put Boeing on trial. “This package offers another opportunity for Boeing to hide their misdeeds from the public,” Ike Riffel, a Californian whose two sons died in the second 737 Max crash, said Monday. “The families are very disappointed, but we vow to fight on.” Paul Cassell, a former federal judge who is representing some of the victims’ families, called it “a sweetheart deal” for Boeing. Some of the lawyers involved in the case, however, say a plea deal is better than nothing. “While I personally would have preferred a more vigorous prosecution, a guilty plea to a felony is a serious step up” from a 2021 agreement between Boeing and the Justice Department, said Mark Lindquist, a lawyer who is suing Boeing on behalf of passengers who survived a scary 737 Max inciden t at the beginning of this year. The Justice Department first charged Boeing with fraud in January 2021 but agreed not to prosecute if the company paid a fine and followed other terms for three years. Then, seven weeks ago, the department said Boeing had violated the deferred prosecution agreement by failing to make changes to detect and prevent future violations of anti-fraud laws. Prosecutors have not publicly disclosed the alleged violations. Here are some questions being asked about the case. What is Boeing accused of? The Justice Department wants Boeing to plead guilty to a single count of fraud for deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration about new flight-control software for the 737 Max and how much training pilots of older 737 models would need to safely fly the plane. In the 2021 settlement, Boeing blamed the deception on two low-level employees, one of whom was later acquitted after a trial in federal court. Is Boeing likely to accept the plea offer? The company isn’t saying. Lawyers for the victims’ families say the company would be crazy to reject it. If Boeing takes the deal, it would plead guilty in what likely would be a very short court session. If it turns down the offer, the Justice Department is vowing to take the case to trial, which could expose more details of Boeing’s actions while it was asking the FAA to certify the Max. Boeing “wouldn’t want that bad press and publicity that would come from a trial that would likely involve family members of victims testifying,” said Joseph Facciponti, executive director of New York University’s law school program on corporate compliance and enforcement. A judge might also impose a harder sentence if Boeing contested the case and lost, he added. Can the judge block a plea deal? Yes. The plea and the sentence outlined by the Justice Department, including a $244 million fine and appointment of a monitor to oversee the agreement, would be filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas. If Judge Reed O’Connor accepts the agreement, he could not change the terms approved by Boeing and prosecutors. If the judge rejects a plea deal, Boeing and the Justice Department could negotiate a new agreement or go to trial. Lawyers for the families say that if Boeing accepts the plea deal, they will ask O’Connor to reject it. Would a guilty plea lead to more civil lawsuits against Boeing? It would strengthen the hand of victims’ families who have not settled their pending lawsuits against the company. It is less clear whether survivors and heirs who already accepted settlements could file new claims. Does the plea offer affect other investigations into Boeing? It would only resolve the fraud charge filed after the two deadly crashes, which took place off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia. The Justice Department opened another investigation after a panel covering an unused emergency exit blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January; the FBI told passengers on that flight they might be victims of a crime. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are conducting separate investigations into the blowout and Boeing’s manufacturing quality. Will Boeing’s purchase of a key supplier improve safety? Boeing announced Monday that it will pay $4.7 billion in stock to acquire Spirit AeroSystems, which makes fuselages for the 737 Max. Boeing once owned Spirit, and it believes that bringing the supplier back in-house will help it improve quality and ease safety concerns about its planes. Manufacturing mistakes by suppliers can turn up in finished products. The Alaska Airlines blowout occurred after bolts were not reinstalled following a repair job at Boeing — workers had to fix rivets that were damaged when the fuselage arrived from Spirit — according to a preliminary report by the NTSB. What are other potential implications of a Boeing plea? A criminal conviction can jeopardize a company’s standing as a federal contractor, and Boeing is an important one. The company builds planes for the Defense Department and built a space capsule for NASA. Facciponti, the NYU expert on corporate law, said the plea could be written so that a Boeing subsidiary pleads guilty, allowing the rest of the company to avoid disbarment. However, in many cases agencies have discretion to avoid disbarring companies. “I don’t think the government wants to lose the ability to contract with Boeing, so there is always the option for government agencies to allow a company that has been convicted of a crime like this to continue doing business with them,” Facciponti said. The Boeing case also raises questions about deferred prosecution agreements. Peter Reilly, a law professor at Texas A&M University who has written about them, said DPAs were intended to handle low-level offenses and first-time offenders but are now used in major cases like the 2015 deal with General Motors, which was charged with concealing a deadly problem with ignition switches in small cars. Reilly said Congress should bar DPAs when victims of a corporate crime die. “People are realizing, wow, this is what happens when Boeing admits to committing a very serious crime and 346 people die?” he said. ___ Cathy Bussewitz in New York contributed to this report.
What the new IRS guidance on crypto tax reporting means for investors 2024-07-01 20:29:00+00:00 - The U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS on Friday released final tax reporting rules for digital asset brokers — and crypto investors have limited time to prepare, experts say. Mandatory yearly reporting will phase in starting in 2026, with digital currency brokers required to cover gross proceeds from sales in 2025 via Form 1099-DA. In 2027, brokers must include cost basis, or purchase price, for certain digital asset sales for 2026. "These regulations are an important part of the larger effort on high-income individual tax compliance," IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. "We need to make sure digital assets are not used to hide taxable income, and these final regulations will improve detection of noncompliance in the high-risk space of digital assets." More from Personal Finance: Is the U.S. stock market too 'concentrated'? Here's what to know Federal appeals court lets Biden's student loan repayment plan resume Here's what a Supreme Court ruling could mean for Biden's 'billionaire tax' Enacted in 2021 via the Inflation Reduction Act, yearly digital asset reporting was estimated to raise nearly $28 billion over a decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. However, the original start date was postponed. The new IRS regulations come roughly four months after the agency hired two former crypto executives to improve digital currency service, reporting, compliance and enforcement programs. "Everybody's been waiting for the tidal wave of this enforcement activity," James Creech, an attorney and senior manager at accounting firm Baker Tilly, previously told CNBC.
Boeing rival Airbus is set to launch its game-changing A321XLR plane this year. Here's where it's expected to fly. 2024-07-01 20:21:13+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Boeing's quality control problems following the Alaska Airlines door plug blowout have forced it to scale back production and cut delivery targets for its 737 Max aircraft. To better focus on cleaning up its latest Max mess, the manufacturer is not bringing any passenger planes to the Farnborough International Airshow this year, one of the aviation industry's biggest and most-attended events. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. With nothing commercial to show from Boeing, which usually has its 777X and Max test jets on display, all eyes will be on European rival Airbus. Of particular interest is the planemaker's new, soon-to-be-certified single-aisle aircraft, the Airbus A321XLR. Airbus has secured over 550 orders for the highly-anticipated "Xtra Long Range" model from American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, United Airlines, Spain's Iberia, India's IndiGo, Qantas, Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia X, Chile-based budget carrier Sky Airline, Czech Airlines, and others. Advertisement The XLR plane is the longest-ranged option in the A321neo family, which has outsold Boeing's 737 since 2019, when two fatal crashes grounded the plane's Max variants. According to Airbus, the XLR is uniquely equipped for long-haul flying, thanks to an extra rear center fuel tank that helps the narrowbody fly up to 5,400 miles (11 hours) nonstop. It also boasts a 30% reduced fuel burn compared to previous-generation competing aircraft, with half the trip cost of dual-aisle planes, according to Airbus. The XLR's enhanced range and economics make it a versatile option for airlines wanting to capitalize on niche money-making long-haul markets but without the costs or capacity of a widebody plane. Advertisement Historically, Boeing's 757 was the prime transatlantic narrowbody option, but airlines like JetBlue Airways and Air Canada have since shifted to the more efficient A321neoLR and Max, respectively, between the East Coast and Europe. Airlines like JetBlue have capitalized on the trend of flying narrowbody planes across the Atlantic. Taylor Rains/Business Insider The XLR's design builds on this growing long-haul trend and is expected to open new city pairs that would otherwise require a layover or wouldn't financially make sense to fly. Fortunately, airlines and customers won't have to wait much longer. Related stories In May, Airbus announced that the XLR was in the final stages of certification, noting heavy paperwork has prolonged the process beyond the initially expected June timeline. Advertisement Still, Unlike Boeing's Max 7 and Max 10 planes — which are sitting in certification limbo — Airbus expects the XLR to enter service as soon as November. Airbus' new XLR jet will open route options that are otherwise difficult Spanish national carrier Iberia is the launch customer for the XLR and is selling tickets for the first-ever passenger flight from Madrid to Boston on November 14, according to its website. Flights to Washington Dulles will follow on January 15. The XLR will replace the Airbus 330 widebody Iberia is presently flying to Boston, while the Dulles route will be a new offering. According to Iberia, its new XLR planes will feature 182 seats across economy and business cabins, though the plane can carry up to 220 people in two classes. Advertisement The premium seating offers lie-flat beds typical to what customers find on long-haul widebody flights, and is likely to be the norm on long-haul XLRs. JetBlue plans to install its Mint business class, for example, while American plans to install its XLRs with new Flagship suites. American's new Flagship Suite on its A321XLR, complete with sliding doors. American Airlines In March, American's managing director of global network planning, Jason Reisinger, said the XLR is favorable because it enables the airline to serve "routes that cannot support a 787 but where we still have a nice onboard product." He suggested routes like Raleigh, North Carolina, direct to London — meaning passengers wouldn't have to stop in the carrier's Charlotte or New York hubs along the way. Advertisement Meanwhile, United's EVP and CCO, Andrew Nocella, said during a 2019 order announcement that the XLR would be a good replacement for the "older, less-efficient aircraft currently operating between some of the most vital cities in our intercontinental network." IndiGo and Frontier's XLR orders suggest the plane fits into both mainline and budget models. IndiGo's former CCO Willy Boulte said in the summer of 2021 that the XLR would fill the gaps in flying between Indian cities and Europe and Asia, pointing to options like Beijing, Seoul, and Amsterdam. Frontier CEO Barry Biffle has suggested that the XLR may allow Frontier to ditch its mostly domestic presence to serve more cities in South America, and launch new services to Hawaii and Europe. Advertisement Airbus said the XLR could also be used on already popular routes that may sometimes benefit from a lower-capacity option. "Even well-established city pairs such as London-Miami or Sydney-Kuala Lumpur will benefit from the year-round sweet spot the XLR offers airlines," Airbus marketing specialist Ludek Jando said in September 2023.
What's a personality hire? Here's the value they bring to the workplace. 2024-07-01 20:16:00+00:00 - Steps any office can take to fix low morale Steps any office can take to fix low morale 04:02 If you or a co-worker is extroverted, personable and equipped with other soft skills but low on technical experience, you could be what is known as a "personality hire." These employees are often charismatic and have stellar interpersonal skills, which can go a long way in the workplace. Indeed, so-called personality hires serve a valuable purpose: They boost morale, cheer on coworkers, and can seal deals with clients. And hiring managers are looking for people to champion corporate culture at a time when only one-third of U.S. employees say they are engaged at work, and nearly half of workers say they are stressed, according to Gallup's annual report on the state of the workplace. "Personality hires refer to employees that were hired for their personality. Think about their charisma and their ability to cheer the team on," said Vicki Salemi, career expert for Monster. "If it were baseball, they'd be on the top step of the dugout cheering on the team. They are hired for their approach to work and their attitude." Almost half of workers — 48% — consider themselves a personality hire, according to a recent survey from career site Monster. Of those, 85% say they bring with them the ability to strengthen relationships with clients, customers and coworkers. Another 71% said they improve work culture, and 70% said they lighten the mood and boost morale. More than half say they exhibit enthusiasm for company sponsored events like happy hours. Daniel Bennett, a 28-year-old founder of a creative agency, DX Creative, told CBS MoneyWatch he believes he was a personality hire in a former role at an advertising agency. "You get hired based on if people like you or not," he told CBS MoneyWatch. "I got my job with zero experience, and I attribute my beating out other candidates to making interviewers laugh and have a good time with me, instead of being stoic and telling them what they wanted to hear." "The right cultural fit" There's a relative consensus, too, among both personality hires and traditional employees that the former's most valuable attribute is their ability to enhance relationships with clients and co-workers. "They are the person on the team who can get along with anyone, especially if a relationship is sour. They can repair it and turn it into positive one," Salemi said. Of course, possessing soft skills or technical skills doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. "The sweet spot is a candidate who has both. They have the technical skills to do the job and they are the right cultural fit," Salemi said. "It is a balance. Imagine going to the office and no one has a personality, and you're not having fun at all. That's an extremely hard environment to be successful in," Bennett, the founder of the creative agency said. He added that personality hires are far from bad at their jobs. "Just because you're a personality hire doesn't mean you're bad at your job; it just means your personality got you the extra oomph to get it," he said. Can build resentment On the flip side, workers who fall under the traditional hire category can sometimes be resentful when a colleague they deem inexperienced or simply too chatty in the office is rewarded for their likability. About four in 10 workers say they believe personality hires may receive opportunities and recognition they're not deserving of, because their personality is valued more than hard work or the technical ability to do the job, according to the Monster survey. "Someone who is more of an introvert may still be positive about the work environment and have high morale, but not be as extroverted as a colleague, and might be passed over," Salemi said. "They'd say, 'I bring just as much if not more to the table, and here is this personality hire who is advancing,' but not for what they consider to be actual work." But in the view of some, including personality hires themselves, chatting with colleagues in the hallway or at the water cooler is an integral part of the job, and does drive real value for companies. In a video on social media app TikTok, comedic actor Vienna Ayla pokes fun at personality hires while also highlighting their merits. "So this job calls for five years of experience and expertise in Excel," Ayla said of a fictitious role she's in. "I had no experience and thought that Excel, was for, like, astronauts or something. But you know what I did have? A can-do attitude, and I think they really saw that." Ayla also said that the character she was playing had been insulated from numerous rounds of layoffs. "There are rumors about some crazy layoffs coming. Am I nervous?" she said. "No. I've survived eight rounds of layoffs."
Boston Celtics' majority owner puts team up for sale weeks after NBA championship 2024-07-01 20:00:00+00:00 - A "Believe in Boston" flag flies during the duck boat parade celebrating the Boston Celtics' 18th NBA championship. The 2024 National Basketball Association champions are up for sale. The Boston Celtics' ownership group announced Monday that it plans to sell the team, according to a statement posted to the Celtics' account on social media site X. The controlling family of the ownership group, Boston Basketball Partners LLC, said it intends to sell all of its shares in the team "for estate and family planning consideration." The sale of a majority stake is expected to be completed by the end of 2024 or early 2025, with the remainder of the sale closing in 2028, according to the statement. As sports franchise valuations soar, the Celtics could fetch a particularly high price. The team is among the most successful and most widely followed in U.S. professional sports, and won its NBA record 18th championship last month. This, plus the soaring cost of sports media rights, will likely lead to a valuation close to — if not more than — the record $4 billion price tag the NBA's Phoenix Suns received in 2023, sports consultants said Monday.
Paramount is hunting for a streaming partner, could kick off a wave of deals 2024-07-01 19:59:00+00:00 - Paramount Global is holding talks with other entertainment companies about merging its Paramount+ streaming service with an existing platform. If it reaches a deal, it may kick off a new wave of streaming partnerships that could put the entire media industry on firmer footing. Paramount Global leadership is having active discussions with other media and tech company executives to determine if a structure makes sense for both parties where Paramount+ can be merged with another streaming entity and potentially co-owned, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. One of the companies that has expressed a desire to reach a deal is Warner Bros. Discovery , according to people familiar with the matter. Combining Max and Paramount+ could strengthen both services by allowing them to better compete with Netflix and Disney's suite of platforms (Disney+, Hulu and ESPN) for eyeballs and future content. Warner Bros. Discovery held preliminary merger talks for a deal for all of Paramount Global earlier this year, but talks didn't escalate. Paramount Global is also considering partnering with a technology platform, the company's co-CEO Chris McCarthy said at an employee town hall on June 25. "What they don't have is our scale of content, and together we will make for a very powerful combination to drive more minutes and greater profits," McCarthy said of a potential tech partner at the town hall, according to a transcript of the event obtained by CNBC. A merged streaming service would mitigate churn by giving customers more diverse programming and fewer reasons to cancel each month, and it could take Paramount+ losses off Paramount Global's balance sheet by giving it new ownership. While a structure for a hypothetical joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery hasn't been discussed in detail, ownership likely wouldn't be a 50-50 split given the existing natures of the streaming assets and their finances, according to people familiar with the discussions. Warner Bros. Discovery's direct-to-consumer business made $103 million in annual adjusted EBITDA in 2023 after losing $2.1 billion the year before. Paramount Global reported a loss of $1.67 billion in direct-to-consumer operating income before depreciation and amortization in 2023, narrower than its $1.8 billion loss a year prior. Max has about 100 million global subscribers, with 52.7 million based in the U.S. Paramount+ ended its first quarter with 71 million subscribers. Comcast's NBCUniversal has also expressed interest in a joint venture with Paramount+, as The Wall Street Journal first reported earlier this year. The talks didn't progress and never got particularly far, according to people familiar with the matter. "The sheer volume of hit content that we could offer together would be tremendous across TV, film and sports, and would attract millions of viewers," McCarthy said during the town hall in reference to a potential partnership with an existing subscription streaming service like Max or Peacock. "Plus, we would share in all other non-content expenses." Spokespeople for Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal and Paramount Global declined to comment.
Appeals court allows part of Biden student loan repayment plan to go forward 2024-07-01 19:42:51+00:00 - WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has allowed the U.S. Education Department to move ahead with a plan to lower monthly payments for millions of student loan borrowers, putting on hold a ruling last week by a lower court. The ruling from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals puts back on track a central part of President Joe Biden’s efforts to address student debt — a rule that lowers from 10% of discretionary income to 5% the amount that some borrowers qualifying for a repayment plan need to pay. The reduced payment threshold was set to take effect July 1, but federal judges in Kansas and Missouri last week blocked much of the administration’s student loan repayment plan in two separate rulings. The ruling on Sunday means the department can move ahead with the reduced payments already calculated while it pursues an appeal. The rulings have created a difficult environment for borrowers to navigate, said Persis Yu, deputy executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, which advocates for eliminating student debt. The stay granted by the 10th Circuit is temporary, Yu said, leaving many borrowers in the dark about future financial obligations. “Borrowers are having to make decisions right now about their financial lives, and they don’t know the very basic information that they need in order to make informed decisions,” Yu said. The Biden administration created the SAVE plan last year to replace other existing income-based repayment plans offered by the federal government. It allowed many to qualify for lower payments, and forgiveness was granted to borrowers who had made payments for at least 10 years and originally borrowed $12,000 or less. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the Biden administrations remains committed “to our work to fix a broken student loan system and make college more affordable for more Americans.” The appeals court ruling does not impact the injunction issued by a federal judge in Missouri, which prevents the Education Department from forgiving loan balances going forward. The injunctions are the result of lawsuits from Republican-led states seeking to invalidate the Biden administration’s entire loan forgiveness program, which was first available to borrowers in the summer of 2023, and at least 150,000 have had their loans cancelled. The suing states argued that the administration’s plan was a workaround after the Supreme Court struck down the original plan for student loan forgiveness earlier that year. ___ The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Hunter Biden Sues Fox News Over a Series That Included His Nude Photos 2024-07-01 19:41:11+00:00 - President Biden’s son Hunter Biden sued Fox News on Sunday, arguing that a mini-series produced by the company broke the law by sharing explicit photos and videos of him without his permission. The program, “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” which first appeared in 2022 on Fox Nation, the network’s streaming service, presented a dramatized version of a criminal trial of Mr. Biden, with fictional charges. The mini-series integrated real-life images of Mr. Biden in the nude and engaged in sex acts, imagery that was discovered on a laptop that Mr. Biden abandoned at a computer repair shop in Delaware. The lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, accuses Fox of violating a so-called revenge porn law in New York State that was passed in 2019. The law allows people to sue anyone who shares their sexually explicit photos and videos without permission. “Fox published and disseminated these intimate images to its vast audience of millions as part of an entertainment program in order to humiliate, harass, annoy and alarm Mr. Biden and to tarnish his reputation,” the lawsuit states.
28-year-old mom's teacher salary largely goes toward child care—the real costs of quitting to stay home with your kids 2024-07-01 19:41:00+00:00 - Like many families throughout the U.S., Amanda, 28, and Carlos, 36, are wrestling with the cost of child care. Currently, they both work full-time jobs, but Amanda would like to stop working for a few years to spend time at home raising their daughters before they go to school. Carlos is supportive, but thinks her income is imperative to their overall financial picture. The couple lives comfortably outside the New York metropolitan area with their two daughters. Together, they earn around $180,000 a year, they told self-made millionaire and money expert Ramit Sethi on a recent episode of his "I Will Teach You to be Rich" podcast. The couple's last names were not used. Carlos has a government job and hopes to retire relatively soon when he hits the 20-year mark and gets his pension. Amanda is a teacher who only recently went back to work after taking a break to have their daughters. They pay $1,881 a month for day care, and Amanda earns a net income of about $44,870 a year, or about $3,739 a month, meaning over half of her take-home pay goes toward child care. The couple keeps their finances separate, with Amanda covering child care while Carlos pays for other costs, like rent. But after crunching the numbers with Sethi on the podcast, they realized they could reasonably afford for Amanda to leave her job. In addition to reducing their child-care costs to $0, the couple estimates they could cut out an entire car payment, along with some fuel costs, if Amanda was able to stay home. Plus, they'd save on food because she would be able to cook rather than use the meal prep service they currently pay for. But day-to-day costs aren't the only thing to consider when weighing whether a parent should take a break from the workforce to care for their children. Here's why. The burden often falls on women The cost of external child care has risen by roughly 263% from 1990 to 2024, according to a KPMG analysis. With that in mind, it may seem like the logical choice to have the lower-earning parent stay home if their salary is comparable to the annual cost of child care. But in many opposite-sex couples that parent is the mother, since men earn more than women, both historically and statistically. And for some women, it's less of a choice and more of an expectation that, when applicable, the stay-at-home parent will be the mother. While the share of stay-at-home parents who are fathers has been on the rise over the last few decades, mothers remain the majority (82%) of stay-at-home parents, according to Pew Research. "I have seen many women leave their jobs because their salaries don't cover the cost of childcare," Emily Green, head of wealth management for Ellevest, told CNBC Make It in an email. "In some households, that math means a career break is inescapable." But even when a family has the option to decide between paying for child care or having one parent stay home, there are more costs to consider. "In households where there's a little more financial wiggle room, women often don't think about what they may give up in the long term — say in 5-10 years — by leaving their jobs now," Green said. Costs of leaving the workforce Green shared three examples of how taking a break from the workforce can have long-term effects on an individual's — and their family's — financial future. 1. Steady salary increases Salaried workers can generally expect to see their income rise over time, even if it's a modest 2% to 3% each year. If you stop working, no matter the reason, you miss out on those annual raises, Green says. "If they are out of the workforce for 5 or 10 years, then return to the job market, they don't get that benefit of steady salary increases," Green said. "It is likely women will start back up from where they stopped." While a career break can impact any worker's salary trajectory, it's especially challenging for women who see the gender pay gap widen when they become parents. Mothers earned 31% less than fathers in 2023, according to a Bankrate analysis of the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey data. 2. Resume gaps While career breaks may be becoming more acceptable, many companies still see gaps on your resume as a red flag when looking to hire someone, Green said. "You may be highly educated with a large amount of experience in your field before you left to take care of your kids," she wrote. "The corporate world still sees gaps on a resume as a negative thing. It may be very hard to get the job you deserve." Unfortunately, even mothers who don't take extended leave often have trouble getting promoted after they've had children. Childless women were eight times more likely to be promoted than mothers, a disparity that doesn't occur among men, one study found. 3. Trade-offs on long-term goals If you have the option of paying for child care or having one parent stay home, Green says it's important to think about what sacrifices you may have to make in order to go either route. You might be sacrificing career growth by staying home, or you may be sacrificing some of your ability to build wealth by paying for child care. "You need to really crunch some numbers to understand what sacrifices you may need to make in the short, medium, and long-term and the feasibility of doing that," she said. "What trade-offs may you have to make and how willing are you to do so?" The right choice for your family
Why RFK Jr's running mate Nicole Shanahan is talking about 'satanic' government 2024-07-01 19:38:33+00:00 - Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign is best known for fringe conspiracy theories tied to vaccines and other medical interventions, such as the belief that antidepressants cause school shootings. But his running mate, Silicon Valley lawyer and entrepreneur Nicole Shanahan, now appears to be dabbling in a wider and, well, more fantastical range of paranoid thinking about the world. Among other things, she has proposed that she and Kennedy are not just fighting against bad policies, but against “demonic” forces — a disconcerting phenomenon, for sure. But there is a potential silver lining: The claims are also more likely to be bought by voters who might otherwise vote for former President Donald Trump. A new report in Rolling Stone lays out how Shanahan’s rhetoric about the two party-system has taken a dark turn. In her pitch to the Libertarian Party in May, she argued that Kennedy could win because he “understands the deeply troubling, almost demonic forces that have overtaken our agencies, and our culture.” The hedge with “almost” does nothing to alleviate my concern that Shanahan seems to think Washington may need a literal exorcism. And in a post on X last week, she published a list of 12 things she believes that the “uniparty hates” and “most Americans love.” (“Uniparty” is a shorthand for the idea that the Democrats and Republicans are merely two faces of the same establishment party.) The list included “democracy,” “parents raising their kids,” “humanity,” and, at No. 7, “questioning if the government might be satanically possessed.” OK! We live in a very politically polarized nation, but it’s still highly unusual to hear political leaders refer to their opponents as literally diabolical. Third parties often try to run on policy ideas that neither of the two major parties have an interest in. The Green Party historically contends that neither Democrats nor Republicans do enough to take care of the environment or attend to consumer safety. Libertarians argue that neither Democrats nor Republicans are willing to adquately shrink the size of government or make tax policies fairer. Shanahan apparently thinks that neither party is willing to reckon with an evil spirit’s possession of Uncle Sam. Shanahan’s belief that the two-party system hates “humanity” also speaks to the belief that she and Kennedy are locked in a Manichean struggle between light and darkness. Yes, we live in a very politically polarized nation, but it’s still highly unusual to hear political leaders refer to their opponents as literally diabolical. Talk of the government as devilish does not just imply a certain kind of religiosity or paranoia — it has specific political valences in contemporary American life. Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson writes: Rhetoric about demonic possession of government plays to two crowds prone to dark superstition: adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory and Christian nationalists. The former believe that a luciferian cabal have taken over the highest levels of government, and that this evil group of power players traffic children and harvest their blood to extend their own lives. Many Christian nationalists also believe that their movement is wrestling against demonic forces, and that their political opponents do not simply disagree with them over principle, but are in fact controlled by Satan and must be countered through “spiritual warfare.” It would be naive to think that Shanahan is stumbling into this rhetoric by accident. Like Kennedy, she has swiftly embedded herself in the far-right media ecosystem. At a recent event Shanahan said that she and former Fox News host and conspiracy theorist extraordinaire Tucker Carlson are “on the same page in every single way.” On social media she boosted an InfoWars host who was sentenced to prison for his role in sparking the Jan. 6 insurrection. Regardless of where Shanahan's privately held beliefs lie, there is no reason to assume she doesn’t know exactly what she’s tapping into with this speech. Considering that Kennedy is consistently garnering around 10% in national polls, it’s unpleasant to contemplate how his campaign is potentially further mainstreaming QAnon conspiracy theories and corroding our social fabric. It is not good for influential political leaders to encourage people to believe that the mainstream political class can’t be trusted because it is hostage to satanic forces. It limits the possibility for dialogue across political boundaries; it’s one thing to be cynical about the ability of the government to get things done; it’s another thing to think that it compromised by the devil. This strain of mistrust can also intensify the likelihood of extremist violence, such as when a man fired a gun in Comet Pizza in Washington, D.C., in 2016 based on disinformation that it served as the base for a satanic child sex abuse ring. But if this kind of rhetoric continues and intensifies, it could be good news for Biden. Believers in theories of a demonic cabal in the government skew to the right, and it’s possible that voters who otherwise might be part of Trump’s base defect to Kennedy. In a narrow race, that could make a difference for Biden in some key states.
Nvidia VP Simona Jankowski Joins Chip Startup Lightmatter As Finance Chief - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) 2024-07-01 19:25:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... Nvidia Corp. NVDA Vice President Simona Jankowski has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer at Lightmatter Inc., a chip startup aiming to capitalize on the AI computing boom. Jankowski wasn’t planning to leave Nvidia until she encountered the opportunity at Lightmatter, reported Bloomberg. Jankowski, who spent nearly seven years at Nvidia overseeing investor relations and strategic finance, announced her departure from the company last month. The Mountain View, California-based startup is revolutionizing computing by enabling chips to communicate using light, potentially increasing speed and efficiency. “It’s just about the only opportunity that I would have left Nvidia for,” she said, which the report quoted. Lightmatter is expanding the use of silicon photonics technology, which replaces traditional copper wire connections with optical linkages. While promising, the technology has faced manufacturing scale challenges. According to Nick Harris, Lightmatter’s co-founder and CEO, the company has gained significant market traction and its products will soon be deployed in some of the world’s largest data centers. Also Read: Nvidia Supplier’s Parent Company Pledges $56B Investment In AI, Chip Tech By 2026 As Competition From Samsung, Micron Heats Up Lightmatter has raised approximately $500 million from investors, including GV, the firm formerly known as Google Ventures. The company is nearing self-sustainability but will continue leveraging available capital to prioritize growth. Founded in 2017, Lightmatter raised $155 million last year at a $1.2 billion valuation, per the report. Harris believes the company has the potential to surpass Mellanox Technologies, which Nvidia acquired in 2020 for around $7 billion. Jankowski’s blend of technical expertise and financial acumen is expected to be a significant asset for Lightmatter. Price Action: NVDA shares are trading higher by 0.30% at $123.91 at last check Monday. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo via Wikimedia Commons Read Next:
We're changing our rating and price target on a beauty stock tied to China 2024-07-01 19:22:00+00:00 - Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Top heavy : Stocks were on pace for a higher close Monday in what has been a volatile session for both equities and bonds. The 10-year Treasury yield was once again nearing 4.5%. Picking up where the second quarter left off, the mega tech stocks continued doing the heavy lifting for the S & P 500 , with Club names Apple up more than 2.5%, Amazon up over 2%, and Microsoft up roughly 1.5%. The average stock, however, was having a rougher time, as indicated by the S & P 500 Equal Weight index , which was down nearly 1% on the session. Monday was the start of the third quarter on Wall Street, with hopes for the kind of strength the market saw in the first half of 2024. Downgrade : We're dropping Estee Lauder to our 2 rating from a buy-equivalent 1 rating and lowering our price target to $140 per share from $162. That PT is slightly below the current consensus of $148, following a string of negative data points toward the end of last week. First, it was the Nike earnings call, which was downbeat on China. Management said its quarterly results fell below plan there when excluding a timing benefit. Nike lowered its outlook for Greater China — pointing to a highly promotional environment. Then there was a negative update last Friday from L'Oreal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus at a JPMorgan investor event. Globally, the CEO said the beauty market is growing somewhere between 4.5% to 5%, which is slightly lower than previous expectations. The key reason behind the sluggishness is the lack of growth in China's beauty market, which Hieronimus called "quite gloomy right now" with the rebound not materializing. EL YTD mountain Estee Lauder YTD You could argue points: (1) that a lot of this downside could already be priced into Estee Lauder stock down at these low levels and (2) that it is a special situation since the company has said it has moved past its inventory glut and has a profit recovery plan in place to improve margins. We previously thought these two factors would be sufficient for the stock to find its footing. But disappointingly, it has not materialized as expected. If the latest signs point to a Chinese market that is still struggling to recover, then we need to hold off from adding until we see more evidence of this turnaround taking shape. Up next : There are no major earnings reports Monday after the close. But it is jobs week, and the deluge of data kicks off with the government's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) on Tuesday and finishes with the Labor Department's monthly employment report on Friday. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED. Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street.
AI In The Drive-Thru: Chipotle, Starbucks, McDonald's Lead The Charge - Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG), McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) 2024-07-01 19:20:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the restaurant industry. The burgeoning sub-sector of the tech industry is bringing new, and personalized, customer experiences to restaurants in a once unimaginable way. From the back of the house to the front, AI is transforming operations, and major players like Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc CMG, Starbucks Corp SBUX, and McDonald’s Corp MCD are at the forefront of this tech-driven shift. A BofA Securities report highlighted this in an industry primer on restaurant stocks. Below are key takeaways for investors in Chipotle, Starbucks and McDonald’s, from the research note. Chipotle: AI In The Kitchen Chipotle is embracing AI with open arms, focusing on both efficiency and innovation. The company is testing PreciTaste, an AI system that monitors food production and signals when it’s time to restock. Additionally, Chipotle is trialing an AI-powered robot, Chippy, to fry tortilla chips, ensuring consistency and reducing waste. These technologies not only speed up production but also help minimize waste, which accounts for about 10% of total production. Chipotle’s AI-generated voice assistant, Pepper, enhances customer interactions by answering questions and taking orders, further streamlining the dining experience. Read Also: Chipotle Mexican Grill’s Pricing Study Affirms Strong Value Proposition, Says Analyst Starbucks: AI Behind The Counter Starbucks has long been a pioneer in integrating technology into its operations, and AI is no exception. Its Deep Brew platform uses AI to manage inventory, predict staffing needs, and even anticipate equipment maintenance, significantly reducing downtime. Starbucks’ AI-enabled espresso machine, Mastrena II, is part of this initiative, ensuring that every cup of coffee meets the company’s high standards. The company’s AI-driven personalization efforts, such as suggesting new items based on past orders, enhance the customer experience, making each visit unique and tailored to individual preferences. McDonald’s: AI In The Drive-Thru McDonald’s has made significant strides with AI, particularly in its drive-thru operations. The fast-food giant partnered with IBM to develop AI-enabled order technology, aiming to streamline the ordering process and reduce errors. Although McDonald’s has paused this initiative in over 100 locations, the company continues to explore AI’s potential. The focus remains on leveraging AI to enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. McDonald’s foray into AI shows the company’s commitment to staying ahead in the competitive fast-food landscape. The Future Of AI In Restaurants As AI technology continues to evolve, its impact on the restaurant industry will only grow. Operators like Chipotle, Starbucks, and McDonald’s are setting the stage for a future where AI-driven efficiency and personalized customer experiences become the norm. With AI managing everything from kitchen operations to customer interactions, these companies are not only enhancing their operational efficiency, but also reinvesting gains to further distance themselves from competitors. The AI-tization of restaurants is more than just a trend; it’s a transformative shift that’s here to stay. As these industry leaders continue to innovate, the gap between scaled operators and their competitors will only widen, promising a future of enhanced efficiency and customer satisfaction in the dining experience. Read Next: Image: Shutterstock
Hunter Biden sues Fox News under New York's 'revenge porn' law 2024-07-01 18:58:00+00:00 - Hunter Biden is accusing Fox News in a lawsuit of distributing “revenge porn” by broadcasting nude images of him as part of a miniseries that was available on the conservative outlet’s streaming service, Fox Nation. Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, claims in his complaint, filed Sunday, that Fox violated the state of New York’s revenge-porn statute, which criminalizes publishing intimate images of a person without their consent. “In addition to the unlawful commercial exploitation of Mr. Biden’s image, name, and likeness, ‘The Trial of Hunter Biden’ unlawfully publishes numerous intimate images (both still and video) of Mr. Biden depicting him in the nude, depicting an unclothed or exposed intimate part of him, as well as engaged in sex acts,” the suit states. It continues: “Fox published and disseminated these intimate images to its vast audience of millions as part of an entertainment program in order to humiliate, harass, annoy, and alarm Mr. Biden and to tarnish his reputation.” Fox aired “The Trial of Hunter Biden: A Mock Trial for the American People” on its Fox Nation streaming platform in October 2022. The network took the program down earlier this year, but the suit states Fox has not yet removed promotional reels and clips, and that its series remains accessible on third-party streaming platforms. Biden also accuses the network of unjust enrichment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In a statement, Fox called the suit "entirely politically motivated" and "devoid of merit." "The core complaint stems from a 2022 streaming program that Mr. Biden did not complain about until sending a letter in late April 2024," a network rep said. "The program was removed within days of the letter, in an abundance of caution, but Hunter Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of multiple investigations and is now a convicted felon. Consistent with the First Amendment, FOX News has accurately covered the newsworthy events of Mr. Biden’s own making, and we look forward to vindicating our rights in court.” Biden was found guilty on federal charges last month of lying about his drug use to obtain a firearm, a felony. He is appealing. He is also facing a trial over federal tax-related charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.